To embed a YouTube video in your Keynote presentation, you’ll need to use a YouTube video converter or the LiveSlides Keynote add-in. LiveSlides is fast to set up, but it requires an Internet connection for video playback. Video converters can take a long time to process, but you won’t need Internet access once you embed the video in your presentation. Learn how to embed live YouTube links with LiveSlides, as well as how to convert streaming video to an embeddable format using a free online video converter like Yout.com.

Steps

Method1

Using LiveSlides

1

Got to the Live Slides site and click “Keynote on Mac”. This will automatically start the download of LiveSlides, a free add-in program that makes it possible to embed YouTube videos in a Keynote slide.[1] Keynote does not offer this functionality on its own.

You must be using Keynote 5.2 or later on OS X Yosemite (10.10) or later to use LiveSlides.

If you embed the video using this method, you’ll need to make sure your computer is connected to the Internet when it’s time to present your video to your audience.

Double-click the LiveSlides icon in the Applications folder. A popup window will appear with a blank text box.

7

Click the text box, press ⌘ Cmd+V to paste the URL of the video, then click “Insert”. A new slide will be appended to the end of your slide deck, containing a square placeholder box that says “LiveSlides web content”.

8

Drag the video to the slide on which you plan to embed the video. This will embed the video on the correct slide.

9

Press the Play button (an arrow pointed right) to start the video. The video can be played in any Keynotes slide view, including during your presentation. You’ll just need to be connected to the Internet for it to work.

10

Press ⌘ Cmd+S to save your presentation. Remember, the actual video isn’t saved inside of your presentation—just an embedded link. This means you’ll need to be connected to the Internet in order to view the video.

Method2

Using an Online Video Converter

1

Direct your web browser to Yout.com, an online YouTube conversion tool.[4] If you think you’ll need to present your video in a location where you won’t have Internet access, you may consider using a site that converts and downloads videos from YouTube. There are other options for similar tools, but few support YouTube, are free, and contain no ads or malware. Yout.com is a fairly new site that presently meets these criteria.

Downloading a YouTube video may not be legal in your location, depending on how you want to use the file.[5] Be familiar with the laws in your area and do any downloading at your own risk.

2

Press ⌘ Cmd+T to open a new browser tab, then navigate to your desired YouTube video. You’ll want to do this in a separate tab so you can keep Yout open.

3

Press ⌘ Cmd+L to highlight the video’s URL, then ⌘ Cmd+C to copy it.

4

Click back to the tab open to Yout.com. Now you’ll start converting the streaming YouTube video to a format that can be embedded into Keynote.

If you chose an alternative online video converter, open it now. The following steps should be similar to what you see on any converter.

5

Paste the URL into the text box by pressing ⌘ Cmd+V, then press ⏎ Return. This will open a new screen with several different settings you can adjust for your video download.

6

Click the button that says “MP4 Video.” This tells the online tool to create the correct type of file.

All .MP4 videos created with this tool are High-Definition (720p) quality.[6]

7

Use the sliders to set when the video begins and ends. If you want to download the entire video, leave the sliders alone. If you want to start somewhere different, move the first slider to the exact time you’d like the video to start. Move the second slider to your desired end time.

8

Type a name for your video download into the large text box. The original YouTube name is already in the box, so you only need to type a new title if you don’t want to use that one.

9

Click “Record MP4” to convert the YouTube video to a downloadable format. This process could take several minutes, depending on the size of the video. When the video has finished converting, a download window will appear.

10

Click “Save” to download the video to your Downloads folder. Note that this process will probably be even longer than the conversion process, as the file must now be transferred to your computer over the Internet. This could take several minutes to an hour or more, depending on file size and the speed of your Internet connection.

11

Drag the video from the Downloads folder to the desktop.[7] This is just to make it simple to drop the video into your Keynote presentation.

12

Open your presentation in Keynote.

13

Navigate to the Keynote slide where you’d like to embed your video. You can also choose to create a brand new slide. To do this, click the “+” icon, then choose a layout for your new slide.[8]

14

Drag the video from your desktop to the desired slide. Once you drop the video onto the slide, you can adjust its size by dragging the small squares at the edges.

15

Press “Play” to view your video. The video will now play in any Keynote view, including when you’re giving a live presentation.

16

Press ⌘ Cmd+S to save your presentation. The presentation will be saved with the embedded video included. You won’t need to be online to play the video.

Because the video has been embedded into your presentation, the file size of the presentation will increase.

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Tips

Most YouTube converters can also turn videos into downloadable .MP3 audio files.

Warnings

It is extremely difficult to find YouTube-to-Video converters that do not contain lots of ads or try to install extra software. If for some reason the suggested site is not available to you, exercise caution when choosing another program.

It may not be legal to download content from YouTube in your area. Be familiar with the laws in your area.